OF THE UNITED STATES 435 



nursing away, and holding on to the hair of the mother with a 

 pertinacity, rivaling that of a young opossum. Harrison Allen 

 has published some excellent studies of the reproduction of bats, 

 that are of great importance, and we stand much in need of more 

 literature of the same high standard. Bats never build any such 

 a thing as a nest, so that their very helpless young when born 

 must wholly rely upon the one supplied by the hair of the 

 mother's breast as their only refuge. Occasionally, while nurs- 

 ing them, she will suspend herself in the usual way in her place 

 of retreat, and allow them to take their food uninterrupted by 

 her flight. 



As evening comes on bats come out of their retreat in numbers, 

 some to skim up and down the bypaths of the forests and glens; 

 others take to the streets and lanes of cities, towns, and villages, 

 while some species seem to prefer to do their entomological hunt- 

 ing far up in the air. Light invariably attracts them, owing to 

 the number of insects that swarm about it. For this reason they 

 are frequently seen flitting about the street lamps or even fly 

 into our houses or other places brilliantly lit up during the hours 

 of evening and later on. So among the town people in England, 

 as also in some parts of this country, they are called Flitter-mice, 

 and by the Germans Fleder-mauser, while I may add the French 

 know them as Chauve-souris, or Ball-mice. They are, when fly- 

 ing about at dusk, easily shot with a light gun or collecting cane; 

 or they may be taken with a hand-net. Boys about the street- 

 lights frequently get them by tossing up little pebbles in the air, 

 and as the bat flits down after what it supposes to be a beetle, it 

 is knocked to the ground with a bushy bunch of leafy twigs in the 

 hand of the juvenile collector. I have also taken them with a 

 small fly-fishhook and line, flipped about skillfully in the air 

 where they have been numerous, and hunting well some special 

 locality. 



During the winter, particularly in the North, our bats all hi- 

 bernate in cavities in large bodies together; although some spe- 

 cies, I believe, do the same singly or only a few together. Sev- 

 eral times in the winter, if a warm day happen to come on, I have 

 seen the Ked bat come out and hunt with quite as much activity 

 as though it were midsummer. Such sights, however, are but 

 rarely seen. 



Our Serotine bat is capable to a degree of being tamed, but as a 

 rule thev are vicious, cross, little creatures, that bite with vigor 



